MUKAH: The petrol/fuel smuggling in Sarawak is now very much under control following the proactive measures undertaken by the relevant authorities. Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism (KPDNKK) State’s Deputy Director, Abd Hafidz A Rahim, attributed it to the solid cooperation between the various agencies to fight against smuggling by water and by land.
“The joint operation involving the various agencies, like Malaysian Mar ine Enforcement Agency (MMEA), Marine Police, Army, Customs Department, Immigration Department, KPDNKK and others through the National Blue Ocean Strategy(NBOS) has played a very important role towards this end,” Hafidz said. He revealed that Malaysia had become the potential target for this illegal activity mainly due to the cheaper price of petrol/diesel sold in Malaysia comparing to the neighbouring countries.
“Malaysia has become the potential for this smuggling activity because our price is lower than them, and it is obvious or else they would not try to smuggle them out, especially our RON 95 which is not imposed with GST,” he said. Areas that are exposed to these activities, he added, are normally near the borders of the state and country, by land or water. “For instance in Sarawak, Serikin is one of them, and in West Malaysia Sungai Golok in Kelantan and of course there are others in Kedah and Perlis,” he reiterated. Hafidz stated this at a press conference held at KPDNKK Office, here, yesterday. Also present at the press conference was KPDNKK Mukah Office, Branch Head, Moss Ak Baok. The conference was held in conjunction with The Meeting with the Local LPG, Petrol, Diesel wholesalers/ retailers and Petrol Station Operators.
At the event, Hafidz also revealed that since early this year, KPDNKK Mukah had conducted a total of 3016 inspections in Mukah. “From that total, 1958 inspections were done in the town area and 1,058 in the rural area. Sometimes people might confuse how come Mukah has so many of such premises and it is not the number of premises but every inspection counts and it is done repeatedly to monitor these illegal activities,” he said. From the inspections, he added, they had recorded a total of 58 cases under KPDNKK Mukah for this year.
“From that number of cases under various Acts, 55 had been completed with three cases still under investigation. As a result, we seized the items valued at RM29,902.96 with compound amounting to RM26,550,” he said. And he also disclosed that that they had also issued 17 permits for buying of petrol/diesel and seven special permits.
